July 23, 2006

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a... Tesla?

Above and below, the world's hottest electric car.

In his story in the new (August) issue of Wired magazine Joshua Davis noted the huge difference between it and all the others, which Tesla grand panjandrum Martin Eberhard terms "punishment cars" because of their cramped, spartan looks and appointments and slow speed, looking like they were designed by people "who thought you shouldn't be driving to begin with."

Among the Tesla's defining features is its propulsion system: rechargeable lithium batteries, just like the one in your laptop computer.

Except the car's got 6,831 of them, split into 11 sectors of 621 apiece, each sector controlled by its own processor which monitors the charge and discharge rate of every cell.

Other features:

• Zero to 60 in 4 seconds (silently)

• Top speed limited to 130 mph

• 13,500 rpm maximum

• 3.5 hours to charge

• 250 miles/charge

• 2-seat roadster

• $100,000

This is no concept car: there are already 10 on the road.

The company is taking orders for the first production models, due next year.

Comments

All these electric cars are missing the point. They're all trying to show off how fast they can go, but I reckon what would sell would be a carryall. If you're going to have a second vehicle (or third or whatever) it'll be used for the school run, shopping, taking the dog to the vet, collecting the kids from college, that sort of thing.
For that a thing like a microvan (http://kuvax.net/i/9665_SuperCarry.jpg) with a top speed of perhaps 50mph (though the acceleration would probably be startling - that's how electric motors are), range of perhaps 50miles. Take all the seats out and it's a load carrier, put 'em in and it's a school bus. At a penny a mile or less, virtually no running costs because it's not highly stressed or driven hard and it'll sell like hot cakes. Pitch it at around $9000 and you'll be fighting people off with a stick if you make the styling sufficiently chic.